Gael Garcia Bernal has made such a name for himself over the years, naturally any project he gets involved with these days will perk our interest. He most recently starred in “No,” the Chilean film which garnered acclaimed when it debuted in Cannes last May, leading to an eventual Foreign Language Oscar nomination. Now Participant Media, the studio that produced “No,” looks to get involved with the Mexican actor once again, this time heading out east to Argentina.
Garcia Bernal will star opposite Alice Braga in “El Ardor.” Written and directed by Pablo Frendrik (“Blood Appears,” “The Mugger”), “El Ardor” is labeled as a modern-day Western and tells the tale of survival and revenge set in the Amazon jungle. Garcia Bernal plays a mysterious man who emerges from the Argentinean rainforest to rescue the kidnapped daughter (Braga) of a poor farmer after mercenaries murder her father and take over his property. It will be nice to see Braga, who first caught many people’s attention a decade ago in “City of God,” step away from her recent Hollywood fare to work with Garcia Bernal here.
This’ll be the first film produced by Participant PanAmerica, a subsidiary of Participant Media. Considering the sheer number of filmmaking talent in Central and South America, let’s hope they’ll be able to continue to produce many more films in the region. But really, a modern-day Western set in the South American jungle? Count us in. [THR]